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Much as I love A Wizard of Earthsea, it is evident that there isn't much femininity within its pages. It appears to be a male-dominated society, as if shaped solely by men with women merely inhabiting it. I wonder how much thought Le Guin initially put into this aspect. In the story, the women don't really have a significant place. There's the witch, Serret, the Kargish woman, and Yarrow, but they don't play major roles in Ged's life. He is taken away from the tutelage of the witch because only a man can teach him wizardry, and there are sayings like "Weak as women's magic" and "Wicked as women's magic". Le Guin does address these issues later in Tehanu, but women are truly absent in the first book. So, it is refreshing to have a book framed by women such as Tenar, Thar, Kossil, and Penthe, the priestesses and novices of the Tombs. Women are the only ones allowed to serve the gods, or at least the Nameless Ones - well, women and eunuchs. The fact that Arha/Tenar is the main character, rather than Ged, gives the story a whole different perspective. She has a distinct kind of life, and thus her story is quite different. Her story is less of an epic quest like Ged's - there is tension and danger, but they are not striving towards something; they are escaping something. She has to grow as a person in a different way. The quest remains Ged's, as before, but this time we see him enter from the outside. It is truly interesting. The language, descriptions, and images in this book are all as beautiful as in the first one. There is something very captivating about the Tombs and the dark rituals. You can sense the cold and the routine hardness - you feel trapped in the rut that Arha has been stuck in throughout her many lives. You can feel the slow unchanging nature of the place. And you also feel the joy and weight of the escape. I believe I like the rhythms and tastes of this book the best in the entire series. Some of the descriptions have firmly lodged in my mind - the drum struck at a slow heart-pace, the little thistle growing beside Ged's hand. And some of the things Ged says, his descriptions of Havnor and his speech that is essentially about "nature red in tooth and claw". This is really the only book that steps out of Ged's own culture. The others are mostly rooted in the Archipelagan traditions, which is interesting enough, but this one provides a bit more worldbuilding. And that is truly awesome.
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